


you're the magician's assistant in their dreams

by daydise



Series: scrapbooking [1]
Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: + some other characters that i can't really be bothered tagging, F/M, Wholesome, one shots that link (kind of)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-23
Updated: 2018-08-23
Packaged: 2019-07-01 11:22:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15773121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daydise/pseuds/daydise
Summary: In another time, another place, she’d like to think that they were riding rusted shopping carts down winding streets and behind them, an old woman would be shaking her fist at them.Tales chronicling (don’t tell Aasim we stole his thing) humanity.





	you're the magician's assistant in their dreams

She’s never met someone like Louis before—someone who’s survived _this_ long and seems to be having the time of their life. She guesses that might mean something.

His smiles disarm her, his compliments catch her off guard. 

“Earth to Clementine!” he sings, jogging a little to catch up with her and AJ. He nudges his elbow against her arm. Another thing to add to her list of peculiarities about Louis: he can sing really well. Nobody really seems to do that kind of thing anymore.

She grunts in response. He grins wide. “Penny for your thoughts?”

Before she can kindly tell Louis to fuck off (with a roll of her eyes, of course), AJ tugs at her fingers. She grasps his hand in hers, squeezing gently. “What’s up, goofball?”

“What’s a penny?” A crease grows in between his brows, which Clementine reaches down to smooth out with her fingers (her mother used to tell her not to frown. Her father would tell her to turn it upside-down). She hopes he doesn’t catch the others’ sudden change in demeanour (who’s she kidding, she raised the kid to be like a hawk).

She reckons that, as much of a regular occurrence it is for her to explain something to AJ, it still makes her melancholic. And remorseful, because AJ would never be able to experience normalcy (although isn’t this the new norm? How many years does it take for something to become normal?).

She stops, crouching down in order to be eye-level with AJ, her hands gripping his shoulders. The others’ seem a little bit at a loss of what to do—Marlon tells the others’ that they’ll stop here to hunt. He gives her a small nod before jogging into the bush, bow in hand. 

Clementine turns her attention back to AJ, who’s kicking gravel, eyes downcast. She doesn’t really know where to start—it’s been a while (more like never) since she had to think about money. “It’s something we used to use to trade for things—to buy things. It used to be valuable—”

“—Like food?” AJ’s interest piques. 

She gives him a small smile, wistful. “Yeah, kind of like food.” 

“Food is good,” he nods gravely.

Clementine doesn't really have anything else to add to the conversation. She wasn't old enough—before all of _this_ —to understand money (and not like it'd be useful anyway. It's just something to reminisce about). She stands up. “Come on buddy, time to hunt.”

Somehow, a beaming Louis inserts himself between herself and AJ as soon as she stands up. His smile twists into a smirk and before she can question him, he turns around to face AJ, clapping his hands together. There’s a light in his eyes. (Another thing to add to her list of peculiarities: how he’s kept that _light_ in him for so long.)

“Wanna see a magic trick, little man?”

AJ nods his head vigorously. Clementine watches the pair with her hand on her hip, a half smile playing on her lips. She’s pretty sure she’s never told AJ what magic is, yet he’s so completely enamoured by Louis (she _might_ be too) that he doesn’t care to ask. 

Louis bows, ridiculously low, sweeping his arm down dramatically. 

Clementine swears she hears a groan, followed by an ‘oh no’ from Ruby, who scoots past them and scurries into the tree line. 

Louis straightens and then squats down, eye-level with AJ. His face is mock serious as he brushes his fingers behind AJ’s ear. Bringing his closed fist in front of AJ, he turns his hand around and splays out his fingers. A quarter, a little grimy with dirt, lay in his palm, glinting in the sunlight. 

AJ’s eyebrows shoot up and his jaw drops. “How— _what_? There was nothing behind my ear!” he protests, cogs turning in his head as he processes the 'magic' trick (if magic existed, how could the world be this shit?). Louis smirks. 

“Are you sure about that, bud?” he teases. AJ immediately covers his ears with his palms, alarm growing in his eyes. 

Louis either senses his discomfort or just decides to move on, because he carefully picks up the coin with his forefinger and thumb, showing it off to AJ, who quickly forgets his unease and just marvels at it all. “What is it?” 

It’s nice seeing AJ have that _light_ in his eyes again. He deserves to feel like a kid, especially in the apocalypse. (Maybe this is why people even try at this point. To find humanity in a world filled with monsters—both walkers and humans alike. Clementine thinks there may be something to that). 

Louis stands, flipping the coin into the air and catching it with his other hand. “It’s a quarter. It’s what Clem here,” he tips his head towards her, “was telling you about.”

“How did you do that?” AJ asks wondrously, bouncing on his heels. A slight frown grows between his brows. “Usually things Clem tells me about don’t exist anymore,” he adds.

She can tell that Louis is a little off put by what AJ had said, but he quickly covers up whatever he felt with a lazy smile. He wags his finger. “Uh uh, little man. Magician’s secret,” he smiles charmingly, shooting AJ a wink. 

As quickly as he entered, he saunters off with Chairles on his shoulder, but not before flashing her a wink.

After he leaves, she allows a fond smile to stretch across her lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my two favourite things: Clementine and Louis


End file.
